The debut season has fully gone off the rails.
Zac Taylor arrived in Cincinnati as an inexperienced coach inheriting a somewhat talented roster, the plan to avoid a full-blown rebuild.
But the rebuild simply won’t be denied.
With the Bengals’ 17-10 loss to the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, Taylor has tied the worst start to a season in franchise history at 0-10. The only other coach to hold this mark is Dave Shula, who finished his tenure in the Queen City with a 19-52 record.
While the problems didn’t start with Taylor — the Bengals have now lost 12 in a row dating back to last season — he’s in trouble.
Fittingly, Taylor’s chance to avoid setting a dubious record comes in Week 12 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. But his first stab at taking down the team’s most sworn of rivals was a 27-3 stinker.
Also somewhat fittingly, it was Taylor’s offense that didn’t hold up its end of the bargain in Oakland.
Taylor’s defense did just fine, holding the Raiders to 17 points and less than 400 total yards despite more than 35 minutes of possession. There were problems, but it was overall the best defensive performance of the season.
Taylor’s offense, not so much. New starter Ryan Finley completed 13 of 31 attempts for 115 yards. He fumbled early and threw an interception to seal the game late. The ground game gained 7.9 yards per carry … but only ran it 22 times. As a whole, the offense sputtered to 246 total yards and a 3 of 13 mark on third down.
It isn’t all on Taylor. Injuries have ravaged the roster. The front office isn’t exactly helping in that department. He’s having to speak for an absent front office atop everything else.
But if asked to dial up what an overwhelmed first-year coach might do if he’s struggling, this is it. Taylor’s playcalling isn’t good. His talent usage — which included just three targets for Tyler Boyd in a game decided by seven points, to name one example — is questionable. At some point one would think it could trend in a positive direction. Even Miami is winning games.
These Bengals aren’t. And while Taylor might unfathomably steer an incredible long-term turnaround over the next few years, he’s fittingly right next to Shula so far in the early stages of his tenure in Cincinnati.
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